For­mer Ar­gos re­ceiver Darrell K. Smith dies

Darrell K. Smith, a for­mer re­ceiver with the Toronto Arg­onauts and Ed­mon­ton Eski­mos, has died. He was 55.

The Ar­gos con­firmed Tues­day that Smith died on Mon­day night of cancer.

Smith spent eight sea­sons in the CFL, in­clud­ing seven with Toronto (1986-92). The na­tive of Youngstown, Ohio, had 465 catches for 8,144 yards and 52 TDs with Toronto while re­turn­ing 84 kick­offs for 1,139 yards.

Smith was dealt to Ed­mon­ton in 1993 as part of a 16-player trade, the largest in CFL his­tory.

“Darrell was an elec­tri­fy­ing player who cap­tured the hearts of our fans, etched his name in the Ar­gos’ record book, and helped lead us to our Grey Cup cham­pi­onship in 1991,’’ Michael Copeland, the Ar­gos pres­i­dent and CEO, said in a state­ment. “He will be for­ever re­mem­bered as one of the Ar­gos’ all-time great re­ceivers.

Smith, a four-time CFL al­ls­tar, re­mains the fran­chise leader in con­sec­u­tive games with a re­cep­tion (96), sin­gle­sea­son touch­downs (20) and av­er­age yards per catch (17.5).

He stands sec­ond all-time in ca­reer and sin­gle-sea­son 200yard re­ceiv­ing games (two), third in 100-yard re­ceiv­ing games (25) and re­ceiv­ing yards in a sin­gle-sea­son (1,826), and fifth in re­ceiv­ing touch­downs (111) and com­bined yards (9,374).

Smith was also a for­mer team­mate and close friend of Ar­gos great Michael (Pin­ball) Cle­mons, who re­mem­bered Smith fondly.

“Darrell K. Smith was ev­ery­thing you think of when you speak of su­per­star wide re­ceivers,’’ Cle­mons said. “His play was scin­til­lat­ing, his con­fi­dence over­flow­ing and his com­pet­i­tive spirit un­de­ni­able.

“To­day we cel­e­brate his life and ap­pre­ci­ate his con­tri­bu­tions, both on and off the field. Be­yond his con­fi­dence, I re­mem­ber his laugh and the scream he would let out just be­fore ga­me­time that let us all know it was time to play. More hu­manely, he was smarter, kinder, and more thought­ful than most of us had a chance to see.’’